Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Great day for Alabama GOP

The GOP won the state senate seat today that was left vacant when Parker Griffith resigned to become the local Congressman. Local middle class businessman Paul Sanford(R) defeated State Rep Laura Hall(D) by a 57-43 margin in the special election that was held today in Huntsville. This district had been represented by a democrat since early 1999. The GOP though caught a slight break when the democrats nominated Laura Hall for this seat. State Rep Hall is one of a handful of legislators that have been caught "double dipping" in the state's two year college system. But the ultimate factor in today's win was Paul Sanford's connections to the everyday working man and woman in Huntsville. Mr Sanford could relate to their struggles. He deals with them everyday at his restaurant while State Rep Hall was in Montgomery hanging out with the insiders in Alabama. Mr Sanford's win provides the Alabama GOP a huge morale boost as they head into next years elections. It should also be noted that there's a special election next month for a State House seat in Huntsville left vacant by a democrat legislator who was convicted in the two year college scandal. The word is that the internal polls show the GOP candidate in that race up by double digits over his democrat challenger. One final note on this huge GOP win today concerns a prank a radio talk show host pulled this morning on his morning show in Huntsville. Dale Jackson made up a fake flier that said only republicans were allowed to vote today while democrats could vote Wednesday. As you might expect the democrats are screaming racism over the flier because Jackson and Sanford are both white while Hall is black. Hall's people are also claiming this flier affected the race because their polls showed her winning. But given the huge margin of Mr Sanford's win. Hall and her supporters will have a hard time getting anywhere with their argument.